The Good Samaritan by Toni Halleen (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @harperperennial for the review copy of The Good Samaritan by Toni Halleen.

Have you ever been helped by a good Samaritan, or have you been one yourself?  I spun my mom’s car and slide off the highway while driving through a snow storm when I was in college.  A good Samaritan stopped and made sure I was okay, which I greatly appreciated.

Matthew Larkin is a sociology professor at St. Gustaf in Minnesota in 1992.  While driving home one night, he comes across a young passed out boy underneath a tarp in the rain.  Trying to be a good Samaritan, he decides to take the boy to the hospital himself.  The boy wakes up and runs off before Matthew gets him to the hospital.  Who is this boy and why was he passed out in the rain?  Why does he remind Matthew of the poor choices he has made in his own life that led up to his own son’s death?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This was an interesting domestic suspense thriller.  I would call this a family drama or slow burn domestic thriller as didn’t have a lot of stunning twists and turns.  It did have a lot of character and family development.

·       I liked the 1992 and Minnesota setting. 

·       The story was told through many people including Matthew, his daughter Claire, the missing boy, Seaver, and Kira a social worker that is looking for Seaver.

·       The stories were all separate, but intwined.  I liked the resolution at the end.  I thought that the mystery was solved and that the characters also had great growth towards a positive solution to the problems in their lives.

·       I didn’t always think Matthew made the right choices, but I felt for him.  He tried to do what was the right thing at the time.  He kept harkening back to the worst moment of his life, his son’s death, and the aftermath which included the destruction of his marriage. 

·       Claire is trying to navigate life as a teenager from a broken family.  She has a crush, but when her crush takes things too far, what will she do?

·       Seaver had to leave his foster home suddenly, but what he wants most is to get back his mother.

·       Kira wants to find Seaver, but she also has ties to Claire and gets to know Matthew.

·       There are some trigger warnings and heavy themes for this book including sexual assault, the death of a child, alcoholism, drug addiction, divorce, grief, foster care, and runaways.

·       The book does make you think, what would you do in such a situation?  Now with cell phones, I would just call the police immediately.  It’s interesting how technology has change our society so much since the 1990s.

·       I enjoyed these characters and would love another novel to catch up with them a few years down the road.

Overall, The Good Samaritan by Toni Halleen was a good domestic suspense thriller with interesting characters and premise.